When I was a young girl my parents bought a five month old filly for me in 1962 from Bill Sausser of Colorado Springs. She was what we called a red roan with too much white to be registered in the AQHA. Because of this she was cheaper than the registerable quarter colts. But we liked the extra color and were told we could probably get her registered in the fairly new American Paint Horse Association registry. After starting with a spotted Shetland and then graduating to a larger Welsh type paint mare and then to a quarter gelding it was obvious the color caught our family's eye from the very beginning.
Baby Doll McCue and Skippa Rope at a few hours old. Skippa Rope at the heels and Skipover heading the steer. Skippa Rope winning a reining class.
We registered her as Baby Doll McCue APHA 10,357. She was actually a sabino with a bald face, white legs, white belly and small white spots up her hip areas. When she was five years old Dad and I called Hank Wiescamp wanting to breed to his stallion Skip Hi, APHA 8. He said he would and we hauled her to Alamosa, Colorado as soon as possible. When we arrived Hank told us he didn't know why he told us he would breed our mare over the phone because he never bred outside mares. But because he told us he would, then he would do it. Hank really liked Baby Doll and tried to buy her from us, but we wouldn't part with her. The next spring she foaled the colt we called Skippa Rope. The first time Hank saw "Rope" he said we were lucky. "You could breed horses your entire life and never get one that good." Hank saw him several times and each time tried to buy him. Once he told me to "name your price". He was not for sale though and never would be.
"If you like a horse at 4 months you'll like him at 4 years. Don't look at him in-between." ~ Hank Wiescamp
Rope was a natural on his leads and the sweetest horse to be around. He was willing to do anything for you and very athletic. He became an APHA Champion, sire of Champions and National Champions. Through the years he sired 160 colts, 155 spotted paints and only 5 solids. People would bring mares to us who couldn't seem to produce color. He very seldom let anyone down. He was not a very big horse, 14.3 hands but he really threw a lot of size into his colts. Dale and Jean Fell bred a 14.1 hand AQHA palomino mare to him hoping to get a small paint for Jean to ride. The colt, Sky Roper, a palomino tobiano grew to be 15.3 and became a National Champion jumping horse as well as earning a superior in jumping and amassing a total of 1639 points in his career - 120 halter and 1519 in various performance events.
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